How To: 3D Print Customized Wall Mounts

Across the workplace, Nerf blasters are beloved and carefully guarded. Impromptu skirmishes are an everyday prevalence and arms races are alive and properly. You could have the most effective blaster that Nerf has, however give it a pair months and Nerf has one thing even greater and badder than earlier than. On this battlefield, I have to be on the able to strike again or strike first. With the assistance of some 3D modeling and 3D printing, I’ve mounted my blasters each above and hidden underneath my desk – it was very easy to design and assemble these mounts. Let’s put together for conflict and develop some mounts in your arsenal. This course of will work with any merchandise that you just’d prefer to see displayed in your wall, or, you recognize, hidden discreetly underneath your desk. 

Step 1: Determine the Goal – What Do You Need To Mount

On the whole, any “gun rack” or mount goes to be a fundamental hook sufficiently big to suit any blaster, which works, but it surely’s boring. To take advantage of safe match mount, particularly when you’re mounting a blaster with 4 D batteries in it above your PC like I did, it’s good to make a customized becoming to carefully maintain the contours of the blaster. One among our Product Affiliate’s, Matt, has a Sledgefire Nerf that didn’t have a mount, so I’m going to design one for his blaster.

Step 2: Reconnaissance – Determine the Finest Place for Your Mounts to Grip

You might want to determine the place can be the most effective place for the mounts to grip. Within the case of the Sledgefire, I do know that some folks like to depart the inventory unattached (Matt), whereas others preserve it customary with the inventory put in (different Matt). Realizing that, I need the mounts to grip in the identical place on each so it’s a regular mount. For earlier mounts I’ve used a set of calipers to measure and carefully estimate how vast and the way lengthy the options of the blaster is. This works pretty properly, however I’ll admit there are most likely higher methods to do it. You might most likely use a contour gauge, however I understand how to make use of my useful calipers, in order that’s what I’m going to indicate you.

Step 3: Develop a Plan – Measure and Sketch Your Object

I figured the most effective place to hint for the mount is underneath the barrel and beneath the set off guard, so I took the mandatory measurements and transferred them onto some notepads round a really exaggerated sketch so I had an thought of what the ultimate form ought to form of seem like.

Step 4: Start Modelling – Match the Mount to Your Object

Underneath the barrel, it has a posh cross-section, so I’ll mannequin the holder into that form, however the grip of the blaster has a easy cross-section. I might make it a holder that’s completely sq., however the place’s the enjoyable in that? I took some extra measurements throughout the assorted edges of the blaster to get sufficient reference factors to form it in Solidworks.

Step 5: Take a look at Match and Iterate Your Design

For the primary iteration, I made it with none clearance so it matches the blaster as carefully as it will possibly. As an alternative of printing all the holder and discovering out it doesn’t match, I solely printed sufficient to see the place I must trim or increase contours. Every of those was sufficient to see that I might lengthen the grip only a tiny bit to extra securely lock into it, and the entrance wanted to be a bit wider to suit across the barrel and a bit shorter so it will possibly slide straight again and miss the fake bolts.

Step 6: Design for Ease of Meeting

After a pair extra iterations, taking materials away in some spots and including materials in others, I had a form that match fairly properly to each components of the blaster. For the “arm” that extends out of the wall, I’ve a standardized form that to this point has match even the widest of blasters. To make it simpler to put in on the wall and never must drill across the arm, the thickness of this entire half is particularly designed so the pegs have simply the correct quantity of clearance the place they may match tightly into the wall half and never want any glue to maintain it in place. Our PRO Collection Gentle Blue PLA is remarkably near the identical blue that Nerf used for the Sledgefire, and the Ultimaker Orange PLA is the brightest orange that matches fairly carefully to the Nerf security orange colour. The opposite set was requested in PRO Collection Pearlescent PLA and PRO Collection Black PLA.

That’s all there’s to it! One among these was mounted straight into the facet of the desk for fast draw, and the opposite was mounted above the desk. You’ll be able to adapt this to make customized pegboard holders, TV stands, whiteboard marker holders, or the rest that should repair towards the contours of an object.

I hope that this text was informative and has impressed you to create your personal Nerf wall mounts with the assistance of 3D printing. The varied mounts that I’ve designed at the moment are within the MatterHackers’ Design Retailer, and I will likely be updating if I create extra fashions for the remainder of the workplace.

Is there one thing you’d prefer to see Alec create utilizing 3D printing? Tell us within the feedback beneath, or ship an e mail to assist@matterhackers.com.